Capacity building, professionalization, and action research

• In Event: Third sector professionalization and action research

Abstract

There is a global emphasis on increased professionalization of the third sector, in particular by international donors, who view it as a path to increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of the third sector (Krawczyk, 2018; Reddy, 2019; Suárez & Gugerty, 2016). However, these donor-designed and implemented capacity building programs have challenges and shortcomings, including that they are non-institutionalized, fail to build long-term capacity, and reflect Western priorities, context, and values (Kacou, Ika, & Munro, 2022). Thus, the nature, framing, and content of these capacity building programs is, however, highly contested.

This project contributes to the debates around capacity building and professionalization of CSOs in an international development context. The extant literature highlights that, while framed as being part of a bottom-up strategy of funders that aims to work through local actors, efforts to build the capacity of local CSOs align with practices, rhetoric, and priorities of international funding agencies and undermine – if not cancel – local traditions and expertise (Kacou et al., 2022). These debates then raise the conceptual and practical question of how to develop capacity building programs that truly reflect the needs of local communities while centering on their expertise and traditions (Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, 2021; Nishimura, Sampath, Le, Sheikh, & Valenzuela, 2020).

This research project leverages action research to develop a capacity building program that responds to the specific needs of local CSOs (Hu & Stoecker, 2023). Action research is an iterative process that involves local actors – who are considered co-researchers and experts – and is typically implemented in a sequence of Look-Think-Act (Stringer & Aragón, 2020): it questions assumptions, frames and re-reframes research questions by moving back and forth between initial questions, experts and research findings, and reframed questions, while embedding in the process practical efforts to solve concrete problem faces by the local community.

The project thus involves three main phases. In the initial phase, a group of researchers examined currently available capacity building programs in Liberia. The second phase consisted of focus groups with Liberian civil society leaders to identify local capacity needs as identified by local practitioners. The third phase focuses on co-developing a capacity building curriculum with local and regional partners that responds to the specific needs and demands from local CSO leaders. Preliminary results from the review and focus groups highlight a disconnect between available programs and needs. Most capacity building programs are implemented by international donor agencies as part of grant programs and focus on advocacy, network building, and management. Local CSOs emphasized the need for a greater focus on management and technical assistance, as well as access to capacity building programs, which target larger and established (typically urban) CSOs.

The project is of interest to the ISTR community as our field strives to move beyond its Western-centric origins (Weber, 2022). The project advances a methodological approach to develop contextually based capacity building and NME programs, and preliminary findings confirm the intrinsic tensions of efforts to professionalize local CSOs thus urging for approaches that can incorporate local expertise.

References

Grantmakers for Effective Organizations. (2021). Reimagining Capacity Building: Navigating Culture, Systems & Power. Washington, DC: GEO.

Hu, M., & Stoecker, R. (2023). Using Participatory Action Research as a Liberatory Tool in Nonprofit Organizations. Public Integrity, 1-12. doi:10.1080/10999922.2023.2227387

Kacou, K. P., Ika, L. A., & Munro, L. T. (2022). Fifty years of capacity building: Taking stock and moving research forward Public Administration and Development, 42(4), 215-232.

Krawczyk, K. (2018). The Relationship Between Liberian CSOs and International Donor Funding: Boon or Bane? VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 29(2), 296-309.

Nishimura, A., Sampath, R., Le, V., Sheikh, A., & Valenzuela, A. (2020). Transformational capacity building. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2020, 31-37.

Reddy, M. M. (2019). Aftershock: Aid, Ebola, and Civil Society in West Africa. (PhD Dissertation), Stanford University,

Stringer, E. T., & Aragón, A. O. (2020). Action research (Fifth edition / ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE.

Suárez, D., & Gugerty, M. K. (2016). Funding Civil Society? Bilateral Government Support for Development NGOs. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 27(6), 2617-2640. doi:10.1007/s11266-016-9706-3

Weber, P. (2022). Institutionalization interrupted: The evolution of the field of Philanthropic and Nonprofit Studies. In W. Brown & M. Hale (Eds.), Preparing Leaders of Nonprofit Organizations (pp. 3-24). New York: Routledge.

Authors

• Peter C. Weber, Auburn University

• Kelly Ann Krawczyk, Auburn University

• Bhekinkosi Moyo, Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment CAPSI